McCain has called Cruz a “wacko bird,” and part of the reason for his disdain is that Cruz has vowed to not “go along to get along.”

As Cruz says in the article, “I cannot tell you how many little old ladies clasped my shoulder and said, ‘Ted, please don’t go to Washington and become one of them.'”

For refusing to be co-opted by the Republican establishment and the permanent political class while trying to honor his campaign promises, particularly on defunding Obamacare, “top” Republicans actually sent opposition research on Cruz to Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace before Cruz’s appearance.

This was the type of backstabbing that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin predicted in an exclusive op-ed for Breitbart News on Saturday in which she said she and Cruz should compare “shiv marks” the next time they meet. Palin subsequently called on Wallace to release the names of the “anonymous sources.”